István Kertész (28 August 1929 – 16 April 1973) was a Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor who throughout his brief career led many of the world's great orchestras, including the Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Detroit, San Francisco and Minnesota Orchestras in the United States, as well as the London Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
Kertész was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1929, the first child of Margit Muresian and Miklós Kertész. His sister, Vera, was born four years later. Miklós Kertész, born in Szécsény, Hungary into a large Jewish family, was the director of a leather-works and died of appendicitis in 1938. Margit Muresian Kertész went to work to support her family. At an early age Kertész showed a great affinity for music, and began violin lessons. "When I was six and started music," he told a High Fidelity interviewer, "it was 1935 and cruel things were going on in Europe ... I found my 'exile' in music, practicing the piano, the fiddle, and writing little compositions."[1]
World War II and the Holocaust
With the failure of Hungary's efforts to negotiate an armistice with the western Allies, German forces occupied Hungary on 19 March 1944. Aware of what was happening to Jews throughout Europe, the family went into hiding. Most of Kertész's extended family were deported to Auschwitz in July 1944 and did not survive the Holocaust.
At the insistence of his mother, and despite the wartime interruptions of air raids, deportations, starvation and invasions by both Germans and later, the Russians, István Kertész continued his musical studies. By the time he was twelve, Kertész began to study the piano and composition in addition to the violin. The young Kertész, along with his sister, took advantage of Budapest's rich cultural life and attended symphonic or operatic performances almost every evening. It was at this time that Kertész decided to become a conductor. After the war, he resumed his formal studies and attended the Kölcsey-Gymnasium where, in 1947, he graduated with honors.
On 17 December 1948, István Kertész made his debut as a conductor with an all-Mozart programme.
Budapest
In 1953 Kertész was chosen as Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra at Győr, a post that he held for two years. During this period he had the opportunity to develop a broad symphonic repertoire, leading the Budapest Opera Orchestra from 1955 to 1957, and working as an Assistant Professor of Conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. After the upheaval of the Hungarian Revolution, and with a young family in tow, Kertész left Hungary. Offered a fellowship to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Kertész studied with Fernando Previtali while his wife, Edith Kertész-Gabry sang at the Bremen Opera. Kertész graduated with distinction, and was given the highest award of the Accademia, the "Premio d'Atri." Moreover, Previtali chose Kertész for his "Corso di Perfezionamento" for two successive seasons, during which Kertész conducted the Santa Cecilia Orchestra forty times.
Kertész's earliest recordings include Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 4. Having already recorded for EMI/Columbia records, Kertész now signed an exclusive contract with Decca/London. His British debut was with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 1960. He made his US debut during the 1961–62 season, also beginning an association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra whom he guest-conducted at Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium in March 1962. Eventually, Kertész conducted over 378 compositions with the Israel Philharmonic over an eleven-year period.
While he established a good rapport with the often critical Cologne audience, they were sometimes unhappy with his often fast tempi. His 1970 Aida, with Martina Arroyo in the title role, with one interval and some cuts, lasted under three hours.
London Symphony Orchestra
Retaining his previous position as director of the Cologne Opera, he also became principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1968, and made guest appearances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. During his three years as principal conductor of the LSO, Kertész made recordings of the nine Dvořáksymphonies, which included the first complete recording of the Symphony No. 1.[2] The LSO dispensed with him when he sought control of all artistic matters; his contract was not renewed when it expired in 1968.[3]
During this period in Kertész's career, in 1966 he recorded Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle with Christa Ludwig singing the role of Judith and Walter Berry in the title role. Kertész's interpretation of Bartók's difficult, brooding work is considered by many to be the benchmark performance of the opera; "the playing of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Kertész's instinctive shaping of the drama ... has never been surpassed."[4]
On 16 April 1973, while on a concert tour, Kertész drowned while swimming off the coast of Israel at Herzliya.[6] He had been recording Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn, as well as the complete Brahms symphonies. After his death, and in tribute to him, the Vienna Philharmonic finished recording the Haydn Variations without a conductor.
Kertész was survived by his wife, operatic soprano Edith Kertész-Gabry, his children, Gábor, Péter, and Kathrin, his mother, Margit Muresian Kertész Halmos, and his sister, the graphic artist Vera Kertész.
Dvořák, Symphonic Poems: Hussite, My Home, The Noonday Witch, The Water Goblin, London Symphony Orchestra, (1965, 1965, 1970, 1970 respectively) DECCA SXL 6543
Symphony No. 9/7/8 in C major, "The Great C major", D. 944, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (1962), DECCA SXL 6089
Overtures Des Teufels Lustschloss, D. 84, in the Italian style in C major, D. 591, Fierabras, D. 796, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (1963), DECCA SXL6090
